Europe’s male swimmers, who won 11 of the 14 individual titles on offer at the Paris 2024 Olympics, will seek to make a similar impact when the swimming programme starts tomorrow at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore.

Leon Marchand, who became the French poster boy for the Games in securing four titles last summer, has signalled his intention to concentrate on just two of his Paris events – the 200m and 400m individual medley races, in which he will be clear favourite.

The 23-year-old US-based athlete will also involve himself in the relays.

“I would say it’s more of a transition year for me after the Olympics, which was a big goal for me and a lot of athletes, mostly French,” Marchand told reporters in a pre-event press conference at the newly built World Championships Arena.

“I would say it’s getting back into the game. I had a pretty good year of relaxing, getting back into it, but taking the time for it. I’m excited for worlds, I want PBs in every single one of my races. Of course, I want to break world records in the next few years, I don’t know when that’s going to happen. But I still have a lot to do in the swimming world.”

Meanwhile the Swiss swimmer who ended 2024 with a flourish, 24-year-old Noe Ponti, will be seeking his first long course world title after securing three world short course titles in Budapest last December, in the 50m and 100m butterfly and the 100m medley. He set four successive world records in the 50m butterfly and also broke the 100m butterfly world record in his final.

Ponti, who has been in sharp form this season, has his clearest opportunity in the 50m butterfly, but he will face strong opposition from Canada’s Ilya Kharun and Maxime Grousset of France, who will also be a strong rival in the 100m butterfly.

Reflecting on his short-course world records at the end of last year, Ponti told the press conference:

“It was pretty special to me, to break that world record in the 100m Fly. In the 50m Fly I already got it four times before. In 2020 when Caeleb (Dressel) first broke it, I thought it might be pretty impossible to break.

“But there we go, I did it. It wasn’t that impossible, you just have to believe in what you’re doing and everything is possible if you train for it and believe in it.”There is huge interest in the men’s 100m and 200m freestyle events, where Romania’s 20-year-old David Popovici, Olympic champion in the latter event, has served notice of his ambitions with his performance at last month’s European Aquatics U23 Championships in Samorin.

There he produced the second fastest 100m swim in history when he recorded 46.71, just 0.31 off the world record set by his Chinese contemporary Pan Zhanle in winning the Olympic title in Paris. The Romanian completed his final 50m in a staggering 23.98 – the first time anyone has managed that in less than 24 seconds.

Popovici went on to win the 200m freestyle title in 1:43.64, the world’s leading time this year.

Pan Zhanle will still be favoured to retain the 100m title however, and Kyle Chalmers of Australia will be another strong contender. In the 200m Popovici will face the two men who took silver and bronze behind him in Paris, Matt Richards of Great Britain – who missed gold by just 0.02 – and bronze medallist Luke Hobson of the United States.

Richards’ team-mate Ben Proud will have big chances in the 50m freestyle, in which he earned Olympic silver last summer.

Germany’s Lukas Maertens will have an outstanding chance of gold in the 400m freestyle having lowered the world record to 3:39.96 earlier this year, becoming the first swimmer to better 3:40.

The 800m freestyle will seek Ireland’s Paris 2024 champion Daniel Wiffen taking on the German who bettered the European record of 7:38.19 he set in winning Olympic gold, Sven Schwarz, who recorded  7:38.12 in May.

Bobby Finke of the United States will also be a potent challenger in the 800m – where he took Paris 2024 silver – and the 1500m, where he won Olympic gold. In the latter event he will come under pressure from Germany’s in-form Florian Wellbrock, who won the world 5km and 10km open water titles in Singapore last week.

Italy’s Olympic 100m backstroke champion Thomas Ceccon will face the challenge of NAB athlete Kliment Kolesnikov, who has recorded the fastest time this year, 52.04.

Hungary’s Hubert Kos, the Paris 2024 200m backstroke champion, will seek to replicate his gold-medal performance in this event at the 2023 World Championships, having won short course world gold in Budapest last December.

The men’s 50m and 100m breaststroke races will lack Britain’s multiple world and Olympic champion Adam Peaty and the American with whom he finished joint second in the Paris 2024 100m final, Bobby Fink.

The Italian who won that title by 0.02, Nicolo Martinenghi, will be present – and one of his strongest rivals will be team-mate Ludovico Viberti, who leads this year’s world rankings over 50m with 26.27.

“It was so tough after Paris,” Martinenghi told reporters. “It was like a dream come true but it was also a lot of difficulty in my mind. I stopped, not for eight weeks, but for five months. I decided to change my life. I moved to Verona…new coach, new life, new people. It helped me to discover again how to enjoy my life, the swimming world. Now I can say that I’m ready to come back to push again. I feel good.

“When you go out there to win a gold medal, you feel like no one can touch you or beat you, but it’s not like that. It’s just a medal. You have to push again, to push and start to work hard and win again. It’s difficult, but it’s our job. I’m here to do it again.”

With Sweden’s double Olympic champion Sarah Sjostrom taking time out, the strongest European challenger in the women’s races appears to be Lithuania’s Ruita Meiluyte, who will seek a fourth consecutive title in the 50m breaststroke.

Great Britain’s Angharad Evans has medal chances in the 200m breaststroke.

Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics